TitleGarden in Brazil
Artist
Gretna Campbell
(American, 1922 - 1987)
Date1983
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 54 × 58 in.
Framed: 56 1/4 × 60 × 2 in.
SignedSigned lower right: "Gretna Campbell"
SubmissionPosthumous ANA diploma presentation, December 2, 1987
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number1987.42
Label TextGretna Campbell painted in the south of France, Brazil, Northern Connecticut and Western New Jersey, although her principal subjects were the trees, rocks and shores of coastal Maine, where she lived during the summers at her house on Cranberry Island. This painting was probably done on her trip to Brazil in 1983. Campbell typically underpainted her rough sketches in the studio and then did what she called "direct painting" of the landscape outside, en plein air. To Campbell the underpainting "set a stage" on which the "real performance" of the painting took place. This working process fills her paintings with subtle vibrations of veils, buildups and overlays of her paint as well as her multi-layered perceptions of landscapes.
